Niloofar, a 12-year-old Iraqi girl, dreams of reading and writing, but she lives in a village where education is only for boys. Her mother, a well-known midwife, insists that Niloofar become her apprentice. While assisting her mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a feminist woman who undertakes to educate her in secret.

Unfortunately, in exchange of a field of palm trees, Niloofar's father promises her in marriage to an older man once she becomes a woman. Horrified, Niloofar does everything in her power to postpone her first period.

Destiny catches up with her, but she continues to hide her womanhood from her community, until one day, the truth is revealed. Rather than live in a marriage without love, Niloofar runs away with her Uncle. Shocked, her family considers itself dishonored and sends her stepbrother to track her down.

Award-winning editor Sabine El Gemayel (THE OLIVER HARVEST) proves herself into an accomplished director with her debut film, produced by Jean Brehat and Rachid Bouchareb (DAYS OF GLORY, LITTLE SENEGAL)

The captivating young lead Mobina Aynehdar gives a rich performance, demonstrating an emotional range rarely seen in young performers. As it artfully combines the modern and the past, the poignant and the tragic, NILOOFAR emerges as a potent film about growing up female in a place where inequality rules. (-- Shaz Bennett)

A young Lebanese girl begins to discover her potential through education when her father delivers his own lesson in how their society judges a girl’s worth by “trading” her to a local sheik for a parcel of land. However, the title character in NILOOFAR does not go quietly as the genie has already been let out of this particular bottle.

Sabine El Gemayal’s directorial debut is an assured piece of filmmaking that has as much on its mind as Niloofar does—questioning, dreaming for something better, and refusing to take a well-worn route to the point it is trying to make. What makes El Gemayal’s film soar is that she refuses to demonize the men (or the women who serve as their accomplices) even as they do and plan to do their worst. She simply holds them up to the harsh light of day in comparison to those who refuse to accept an unkind fate being handed to them without question. (By John Wildman, AFI FEST Daily News Staff)